Often mistakenly called a ‘duo’, Koma and Bones is actually comprised of Chris Kirkbridge, Andy Duckmanton and Jude Sebastian. The three of them met through the usual way most DJ / producer hybrids meet – through a love of music. Duckmanton (Koma) has been DJing since the late 80s, playing in clubs in his home town of Lancaster, close to Manchester. “We met just as all the rave culture was kicking off,” Duckmanton begins, “and I believe Chris and Jude used to come down and sample what was on offer, if you get my drift,” he chuckles, “including the music! But we didn’t get together until some years later. Chris (Bones) by this time had been doing his own thing DJ wise, and in about 95 and we formed a DJ partnership as ‘Koma and Bones’ doing a few gigs here and there but nothing major.”
“Jude, or ‘And’,” he laughs, “had been getting down with a few keyboards and samplers, learning his trade so to speak. I had met him a couple of years previous and knew him quite well, and by this time he had already had a couple of tracks out on his own, so it just seemed a natural progression for myself and Chris to get together with him as our producer and engineer to see what we could come up with, and so here we are ten or so years later.”
A few years ago, Koma and Bones seemed to be everywhere. They had tracks on numerous record labels, and had done remixes of artists such as New Order, Crystal Method, EZ Rollers, with a remix of X-Press 2’s Smoke Machine winning them ‘best breaks remixer’ in the US’s Remix magazine. But of late they’ve been a little quiet. “Funnily enough we have probably been busier in the last 6 months than we have ever been!” chimes in Kirkbridge. “We have launched our label Burrito, recorded for lot49, TCR and Thrust. I guess when you are not doing albums your profile does tend to seem a bit quieter, but that’s the route we have taken”, he grins. “We’ve done plenty of remixes, maybe not as high profile as the New Order one,” Duckmanton chimes in, “but we’ve remixed the Breakfastaz, La Liga, Uptown Connection, Headrock Valley Beats, plus made a track for Rennie Pilgrem’s TCR 100 release, Time Waster. So to us it’s been business as usual really, but I think because we haven’t done another artist album or mix compilation you just don’t get all the same publicity.”
DJs / Producers seem commonplace now days, but Koma and Bones were almost driven to produce to find the sound they wanted to play. “It was the natural thing to try and do in the beginning, myself and Chris just wanted the chance to get a track together just using samples at first to see what we could come up with, but we needed someone who could put it all together someone who had the knowledge and the equipment, so that’s when we approached Jude to see if he would be interested,” says Duckmanton.
Now with a wide range of breaks and producers making excellent music, the boys feel a bit spoilt for choice. “Evil 9, Freeland, Meat Katie, Jono Fernandez, Metric, Cirez D, John Dahlback, Sebastian Ingrosso, anything really that sounds fat in a club,” quips Kirkbridge. “We like to embrace a few styles when playing,” adds Duckmanton. “At the moment we’ve been playing a bit of techno and electro, producers like King Roc, Justice, Oliver Huntemann, D Ramirez to name a few, but we still mix it up with the breaks… I think as long as it’s got a ‘breaks mentality’ we will be into it, the Justice remix of Franz Ferdinand is a fave at the moment and Oliver Huntemann’s Bastard is awesome!”
They’re also well known for making cheeky bootlegs. “We make them, we just can’t talk about them!” cracks Kirkbridge. “Yes, we’ve done quite a few over the last couple of years, of big artists too,” adds Duckmanton, “but I think unless your selling quite a few thousand the record companies wont bother you. I would have thought as its pretty good promotion for the artist – almost like a free remix!” Kirkbridge chimes in again “Hopefully the artists see them as a compliment. But who knows?”
You can catch Koma and Bones playing at the We Love Sounds Festival alongside Grandmaster Flash, Mampi Swift plus IC3, James Zabiela, and Patife with Cleveland Watkiss plus a host of local and interstate guests on Sun 11 Jun at the Shores Entertainment complex, West Beach.